Navios Maritime Partners (NYSE:NMM) Stock Rating Upgraded by StockNews.com

Navios Maritime Partners (NYSE:NMM) was upgraded by research analysts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report issued on Thursday.

Separately, Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on shares of Navios Maritime Partners from $65.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 19th.

Navios Maritime Partners Stock Performance

Shares of NMM opened at $42.41 on Thursday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $46.66 and a 200 day moving average of $51.13. The company has a current ratio of 1.13, a quick ratio of 1.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. Navios Maritime Partners has a 12 month low of $27.47 and a 12 month high of $65.89. The company has a market capitalization of $1.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 3.22 and a beta of 1.97.

Navios Maritime Partners (NYSE:NMM) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The shipping company reported $3.15 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.80 by ($0.65). The company had revenue of $340.84 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $326.32 million. Navios Maritime Partners had a return on equity of 13.66% and a net margin of 30.48%. Navios Maritime Partners’s quarterly revenue was up 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.68 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Navios Maritime Partners will post 11.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its position in shares of Navios Maritime Partners by 21.8% in the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 2,149 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $135,000 after purchasing an additional 384 shares during the period. Pekin Hardy Strauss Inc. grew its stake in Navios Maritime Partners by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter. Pekin Hardy Strauss Inc. now owns 27,825 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $1,743,000 after buying an additional 875 shares in the last quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. grew its stake in Navios Maritime Partners by 4.0% in the 3rd quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 74,130 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $4,643,000 after buying an additional 2,850 shares in the last quarter. Merrion Investment Management Co LLC bought a new stake in Navios Maritime Partners during the 3rd quarter valued at $401,000. Finally, Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Navios Maritime Partners during the third quarter worth $511,000. Institutional investors own 62.74% of the company’s stock.

About Navios Maritime Partners

Navios Maritime Partners L.P. owns and operates dry cargo vessels in Asia, Europe, North America, and Australia. The company offers seaborne transportation services for a range of liquid and dry cargo commodities, including crude oil, refined petroleum, chemicals, iron ore, coal, grain, fertilizer, and containers, as well as charters its vessels under short, medium, and longer-term charters.